'TreeOpp' initiative an opportunity to teach new skills, promote sustainability

By Charlie Brennan

Staff Writer

Posted:
12/26/2016 11:00:00 AM MST

Updated:
12/26/2016 09:46:01 PM MST

TreeOpp woodworking instructor Robby Holb observes the work of Richard Tomter, a Ready to Work TreeOpp apprentice. (City of Boulder / Courtesy photo)

A pilot project by Boulder in which the recently homeless are put to work using wood from felled emerald ash trees for crafts projects — enabling them to hone skills preparing them for employment — is being called a success, several months after its launch.

Billed as Tree Debris to Opportunity, the city earlier this month concluded its first session with clients from the Bridge House Ready to Work Program.

They mastered activities ranging from woodworking to laser printing and related computer applications, in converting trees lost to the invasive emerald ash borer into items such as cutting boards or intricate butterfly ornaments.

Margo Josephs supervised the program through her role as manager for community partnerships and outreach in Boulder's Parks and Recreation Department. She said three women and four men completed the first session, running from September to early December, with one more participant dropping out due to personal reasons.

"It's been pretty incredible for us to have gotten to know them and to see their transformation through this program," Josephs said. "They have all taken something different out of it, but it has all been impactful to their personal lives."

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Boulder received a grant of $200,000 earlier this year to support the program on an 18-month pilot basis, the money coming as an award through the $5 million Knight Cities Challenge hosted by the Knight Foundation. The challenge is staged in 26 communities around the United States that were once home to newspapers owned by the brothers John S. and James L. Knight.

Carl Mills, right, a Ready to Work TreeOpp apprentice, makes a sale at the Boulder County Farmers Market Winter Market on the first weekend of December. (City of Boulder / Courtesy photo)

"The point of the Knight Cities Challenge is that we are looking for new solutions and new innovations to either develop or retain talent, to create economic opportunity, and, finally, to further civic engagement," said George Abbott, Knight Cities Challenge project lead.

He called the Tree Debris to Opportunity program "a really unique way to address a community problem. The fact is that all of the wood has to be cut down and there's not a lot of use for it. This way, it is used in a productive way, to develop skills and to create economic opportunity for participants in the program."

"For the participants, we were, I guess, surprised — we didn't know how interested they would be in this, and this turned out to be their favorite three hours of the week," Josephs said. Other than the one participant who dropped out, she said, "Everyone came to every class. That said a lot about what they learned.

"This was one of the first opportunities many of these individuals have had, in a long time, to be creative and to actually have input into the outcome of (solving) a problem."

Life-changing

While some in the Bridge House Ready to Work program have been recently incarcerated, that was only the case with two who took part in Session 1 of the Trees Into Debris program this fall. What they all do have in common is that they are all transitioning out of homelessness.

Some are also facing the challenge of living in sobriety — Josephs said that the butterfly ornaments were inspired by a young woman who saw the design as a symbol of her emergence from addiction.

Bryce Roinestad, 23, is an Arizona native who was living out of a tent in Longmont's Hover Park before being accepted into the Ready to Work program earlier this year. He had some background in working with a laser cutter, and with Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape graphics software, even before joining TreeOpp, as Boulder calls its initiative.

"The program allowed me to branch out from what I knew previously and actually take a new, more creative approach," Roinestad said.

He described the TreeOpp experience as enriching on several fronts.

"A big part of what they did was they gave not just the tools and the knowledge to advance in life in various fields, but they also gave us a more deep philosophical understanding of being artistic, and the applications of that, the advantage to being able to express yourself in a creative manner," Roinestad said.

The program is being run out of the Boulder Main Public Library's "Bldg 61" makerspace, and along with the new skills its participants are learning, they are also discovering one more safe and healthy refuge in their community.

"People now feel comfortable and welcome in coming to the library," Josephs said. "The makerspace is in the library, and they feel they know where to go. They know the their way around the space. They feel comfortable and part of a community.

"This was something we thought would happen through this public engagement opportunity. This simple act of coming to the library once a week really changed their lives."

'Resounding success'

Graduation for the first class of TreeOpp came in the form of the Boulder County Farmers Markets winter market held in Longmont at the Boulder County Fairgrounds Dec. 3 and 4.

TreeOpp participants sold their wares at the market with the butterfly ornaments fetching up to $20 each, and the cutting boards going for as much as $200, raising a total of more than $3,000.

"There were over 4,000 people on Saturday and 3,000 on Sunday, and all of our participants were on the grounds explaining about emerald ash borer, and how they had taken the wood from the raw material, and about the skills the learned along the way," Josephs said.

The next session for TreeOpp is expected to start up early in the new year. One challenge as it moves forward is to find ways to utilize more of the emerald ash debris. All the work done this fall was with five milled emerald ash logs, and it is hoped that by branching into tables and chairs, for example, far more of the wood can be effectively recycled.

Isabel McDevitt, Bridge House executive director, was enthusiastic about Phase 1 of the TreeOpp project.

"It was absolutely a success, not only in concept and design but also in terms of actual outcomes," McDevitt said. "The Ready to Work folks who were part of the program absolutely loved it."

Empowering the participants with new skills was important, said McDevitt, who added, "I think there's definitely more to do, moving into the second cycle, in terms of more connecting to employers, and in terms of making a more direct link between skills learned, and job growth.

"But for the first cycle, I think it was a resounding success on every level."

Roinestad may not be looking too far afield for employment when he leaves the Bridge House Ready to Work program in a few months.

"After this, I would actually like to get a job with the city, working in Bldg 61," he said.

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